“Goodnight.”
The room went still again. My brain should’ve been shutting down, but instead, it was very aware of the fact that Michael Valentine was lying next to me, close enough that I could feel the warmth radiating from his side of the bed.
This was supposed to be fake. Easy. No big deal.
So why did it suddenly feel like the hardest thing in the world to fall asleep?
CHAPTER 21
tino
When I wokeup the next morning, I didn’t move right away.
Mostly because I couldn’t.
Something—someone—was draped across my chest like an incredibly soft, incredibly warm human blanket. It took my groggy brain a few seconds to process that the weight pinning me down was Lilah. Lilah, who was supposed to be sleeping at least six inches away on her side of the bed. Lilah, who apparently turned into a koala in her sleep. Her arm was looped over my middle. One of her knees rested across my thigh. Her face—heaven help me—was buried against my shoulder, her breath fanning across my neck in slow, even puffs. For a long moment, I just lay there, frozen, eyes open and heart hammering. I knew I should probably move. Roll away, extract myself, anything. But I couldn’t seem to make myself do it.
Because, honestly, it felt nice.
Dangerously nice.
I’d had dreams about her that felt less intimate than this.
Her hair had fallen into her face, all tangled and messy from sleep. Her glasses were sitting on the nightstand beside her phone, so she wasn’t wearing them, but I could picture them perfectly anyway—how she always pushed them up her nosein the mornings, how she’d squint at me like I was the most irritating blur in existence.
The room was quiet except for her steady breathing and the faint hum of the heater. Morning light filtered in through the blinds, painting everything in this soft, golden haze. At some point in the night, the blanket had slid halfway off us, exposing her bare shoulder. I tugged the comforter up a little higher, trying to be a decent person even as my pulse refused to calm down.
She shifted, murmuring something I couldn’t quite catch, her hand tightening against my side before she finally blinked awake. I stayed frozen, waiting for her to wake up enough to realize what exactly was happening here.
It took her a second to realize where she was.
Then she froze. And, very slowly, she lifted her head and looked at me.
“Oh my gosh,” she whispered. Her voice was rough from sleep, her hair sticking out in about twelve different directions.
“Morning,” I said, trying—and failing—not to smile.
Her eyes narrowed instantly. “Are you smiling?”
I tried to force the grin off my face, but the more I fought it, the more I wanted to smile.
“Tino.” Her tone was warning, but it didn’t help her case that she was still half-curled against me, blinking like a sleepy kitten.
“You’re the one who attacked me in your sleep,” I said. “I was minding my own business on my side of the bed.”
“I did not attack you.”
“You did,” I said. “Full ambush. You’ve been using me as a pillow for at least twenty minutes.”
She groaned and rolled away from me, burying her face in the pillow instead. “I hate everything.”
“Yeah? You didn’t seem to hate it when you were drooling on me.”
Her head snapped up. “I did not drool!”
Before I could confirm or deny, a sharp knock rattled the door. Lilah’s eyes went wide.
“Don’t answer it,” she hissed.
